America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not so loved as they are here.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact its because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are usually the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.

In other countries the military is feared by both the people and the government because all too often the army is used to take power and steal away the government for its own aggrandizement. There is no accident that the word “coup” is one rarely spoken in the USA unless when viewing foreign news.

So, not in America. In the USA we respect our soldiers because they respect us as much as they respect the law.

When an American sees a soldier an American will feel pride, not fear. When an American hears that a fellow is a veteran, an American thanks that fellow for his service.

In other countries when people see soldiers they fear them, they loathe them. In other countries they don’t want to sit near soldiers on public transportation, they avoid eye contact. Here we shake their hand and ask if they need anything.

So, from us to you, our dear military veterans, we thank you. We thank you for putting your lives on hold while serving us, while making sure we are safe and able to go about our business unafraid of danger, and for putting your own safety at risk.

America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not so loved as they are here.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact its because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are usually the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.

In other countries the military is feared by both the people and the government because all too often the army is used to take power and steal away the government for its own aggrandizement. There is no accident that the word “coup” is one rarely spoken in the USA unless when viewing foreign news.

So, not in America. In the USA we respect our soldiers because they respect us as much as they respect the law.

When an American sees a soldier an American will feel pride, not fear. When an American hears that a fellow is a veteran, an American thanks that fellow for his service.

In other countries when people see soldiers they fear them, they loathe them. In other countries they don’t want to sit near soldiers on public transportation, they avoid eye contact. Here we shake their hand and ask if they need anything.

So, from us to you, our dear military veterans, we thank you. We thank you for putting your lives on hold while serving us, while making sure we are safe and able to go about our business unafraid of danger, and for putting your own safety at risk.

An inscription on a WWII monument in Kohima, India fittingly describes the sacrifices that our soldiers make with their service to our nation. And on this Veterans Day it is also fitting to focus on it. The Inscription says:

“When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.”

What could be a more fitting tribute to the sacrifices made by our fallen loved ones, comrades, and servants? They gave their last full measure so we could enjoy the freedoms we are so fortunate to have today. They gave their lives for our benefit in the truest definition of sacrifice.

This memorial commemorates the Allied dead that faced the Japanese 15th Army upon its invasion of India in March of 1944. The invasion was beaten back by June of the same year through the sacrifice of these Allied troops.

The words are attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875 -1958), an English Classicist who in 1916 added them to a collection of 12 epitaphs to commemorate World War One. Adding the inscription to the Kohima monument was a suggestion by Major John Etty-Leal, the GSO II of the 2nd Division who was a classical scholar in civilian life.

The verse is thought to have been inspired by the Greek lyric poet Simonides of Ceos (556-468 BC) who wrote after the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC: “Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by, That faithful to their precepts here we lie.”

And now we too can recall this verse etched into a stone in a far away and foreign land as a perfect tribute to our fallen as well as for those who gave service to their fellows by wearing the uniform of our armed forces.

So, thank you all. We appreciate your sacrifice. And happy Veterans Day.Read more

A few years after the Civil War as the nation started upon its long road toward reconciliation, rebuilding, and healing the wife of one of the war’s union generals noticed the touching devotion of Confederate widows, wives and their children as each year they came together to place flowers and little flags at the graves of their fallen. Mary Simmerson Cunningham Logan was so moved by the devotion she witnessed that she urged her husband, Illinois General John A. “Blackjack” Logan, to look into creating what was to become Memorial Day.

General Logan was a Senator from Illinois and eventually became a candidate for Vice President on the 1884 Republican ticket, losing to Grover Cleveland and another Illinoisan, Vice President Adlai Stevenson. But before all that Logan was instrumental in creating Decoration Day, the celebration of the nation’s war dead that eventually became Memorial Day.

The following is the general order that Logan issued in 1868.

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

Meet Lindsey Stone. She’s the chubby little scumbag, punk that posted on her Facebook account a photo showing her giving the finger to our troops and pretending to scream at a sign at Arlington National Cemetery that asked visitors to be respectfully quiet among the graves of our fallen heroes.

Lindsey Stone, self-professed “douchebag.”

Of course, like all cowards of her stripe in the modern age, as soon as people started ripping her bloated rear-end, she scrubbed her Facebook account, but before she did she had a whiny little explanation of sorts to explain why she is such a skank.

Lindsey Stone, self-professed “douchebag,” pretends she wasn’t being disrespectful by giving the troops the finger.

Sorry you little turd. No one believes your back pedaling now. You know and we know that you were giving the finger to the millions that have died in service to our country.

America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not so loved as they are here.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact its because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are usually the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.

In other countries the military is feared by both the people and the government because all too often the army is used to take power and steal away the government for its own aggrandizement. There is no accident that the word “coup” is one rarely spoken in the USA unless when viewing foreign news.

So, not in America. In the USA we respect our soldiers because they respect us as much as they respect the law.

When an American sees a soldier an American will feel pride, not fear. When an American hears that a fellow is a veteran, an American thanks that fellow for his service.

In other countries when people see soldiers they fear them, they loathe them. In other countries they don’t want to sit near soldiers on public transportation, they avoid eye contact. Here we shake their hand and ask if they need anything.

So, from us to you, our dear military veterans, we thank you. We thank you for putting your lives on hold while serving us, while making sure we are safe and able to go about our business unafraid of danger, and for putting your own safety at risk.

The idea for Cooking With the Troops grew out of a joint event between Bob Miller and C. Blake Powers. Bob Miller began doing barbecues at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2005, and Blake Powers began doing food events as a result of his first embed in Iraq in 2007, working through the charity Soldiers’ Angels. Bob suggested doing a joint event at Malogne House at Walter Reed, with Bob and his volunteers doing a barbecue and to be followed by a dessert bar afterwards.Read more

America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not so loved as they are here.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact its because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are usually the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.Read more

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-By Warner Todd Huston
America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not